Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of proposals in the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper on young people.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper set out a range of proposals and plans to reform health and disability benefits and employment support. Some information on the impacts of the reforms has been published in the evidence pack, impacts analysis and equality analysis at:[https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper].

The equality analysis examines a range of protected characteristics, including age. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

The reforms announced in the Green Paper, including our new employment support package, will help to provide the support that young people need to succeed. There are nearly one million young people (16-24) not in Education Employment and Training, and the number is rising. Our future depends on young people being able to achieve their full potential. The period when young people transition from full-time education to building their careers is critical in shaping their professional future. We know that disengaging from employment and learning during early adulthood can have a lasting and detrimental impact on both career prospects and health and well-being.

The Government is launching the Youth Guarantee to ensure that all young people aged 18-21 in England can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we are consulting on raising the age someone can access the Universal Credit Health Element to 22, which would remove a potential disincentive to work during this time. It would also be on the basis that resources may be better spent on improving the quality and range of opportunities available to young people through the guarantee, so they can move towards a life of learning, training or work rather than a life on benefits.